View Full Version : Tarmac springs on a wagon


Big Sky WRX
06 August 2006, 00:06
Thought some fellow wagoneer's might be interested in this setup. It's a 04 WRX wagon (but cold be used on any 01-06 "new age"GGA) fitted w/ STi Tarmac (also know as "tuned by Arai") springs- these are the same springs run on the v9 STi Spec C RA :)

Rates are a little firmish 60/50 N, but is still very much tolerable for a daily driver/grocery getter. On the track- well :D

They ride on Koni SA inserts (which have a remarkable range of damping) in oe wagon strut housings.

The problem with fitting sedan springs on a wagon is that the rear will inevitably sag- the wagon utilizes longer free length springs.

This is where the RCE (RaceCompEngineering) camber plates come in- unlike most camber plates these don't add to front ride height, just the opposite- they actual lower the front ride height by ~ 8mm. It just happens that this is almost exactly what the wagons sags in the rear w/ sedan springs :) rear tops are Grp N.

This gave me a perfect 30mm drop front and rear over stock- 355 mm front/345 mm rear (oe wagon heights 387/376).

I'm running the plates canted and this yields an additional .8-ish degrees of positive caster over oe, camber is right at -2.2.

This is probably getting pretty close to the edge of a daily driver, but w/ the damping ~ 1/4 from full soft f/r it's actually not too bad.

Pic of the front mounted strut/spring/RCE plate (the old one coming off was the STi wagon pink springs on jdm WRX wagon inverted struts w/ Noltec plates- nice setup, but was looking for something just a little more)
http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j304/BIGSKYWRX/?action=view&current=noltecvsRCE.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch5

Pic of the RCE camber plates canted
http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j304/BIGSKYWRX/?action=view&current=RCERside.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch6

Pic of the car w/ tarmacs :)

http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j304/BIGSKYWRX/?action=view&current=trainstn043006.jpg&refPage=20&imgAnch=imgAnch24


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